Shares of Southwest Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: OKSB) were downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research in a note to their investors today. With a rating of Hold on the stock, the company has a 52-week high of $19.97. A number of other analysts have spoken on the stock in recent days, and the company has secured a consensus one-year price target of $20.17, above the opening price of $18.71, a difference of 10.89 percent. Important and crucial changes in the company’s operations, future outlook or industry can cause downgrades as the analysts believe that the future prospects for the security have diminished from the original recommendation.

The Fed stood pat on interest rates on Wednesday, helping stocks to mostly higher levels but Chairwoman Janet Yellen indicated an interest rate hike is likely by year’s end

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 SPX, +1.09% ended 1.1% higher, while the Dow DJIA, +0.90% jumped by 0.9%, or 164 points, as each exchange finished in positive territory for a second consecutive day.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.03% tacked on 1% and scored a record closing high.

Shares of Southwest Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: OKSB) opened at $18.71 yesterday trading between $18.42 and $18.71, and last traded at $18.52, a drop of $0.10 compared to the previous closing price.

Southwest Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: OKSB) currently has a market cap of 346.12M.

15,785 shares crossed the trading desk yesterday, lower than the norm, out of a total float 13,817,000. Trading volume is likely to increase in the next few days as swing traders often use swings in trading volume to determine substantial volume aggregation or dissemination by institutional investors.

While an increase in trading for short periods will not mean much, however, a trend of heavy trading volume on the buy side over a period of days or weeks expresses a positive indicator to market traders that institutions may be moving in, so institutional sponsorship is crucial.

Institutional sponsorship is defined by ownership of a stock by mutual funds, banks, pension funds and other large institutions.

Professional investors such as these have teams of analysts that investigate thousands of stocks. Thus, watching their interests is a good way to ensure you are buying the right stocks.

By tracking the activity of these professional investors and how they influence moving averages, traders are able to make make well planned trades.

With that in mind, Southwest Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: OKSB) now has a 50-day MA of $19.22 and 200-day MA of $17.11. It has traded in a 52-week range between $14.00 – 19.97 and today’s last price is 0.07% lower than the 52 week high of $19.97.

Earnings growth is an important factor to look at when buying stocks and investors look for companies that have grown their earnings at least 25% or more over the past 3 years.

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